The Institution of Guardianship in Rural Primary Schools of the Kurgan District of the Tobolsk Province in the 19th — Early 20th Century

About the author:

Igor V. Neupokoev, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), Associate Professor, Department of Social and Humanitarian Disciplines, Russian Academy of National Economy and the State Service under the RF President (Kurgan Branch); neupokoev_i_v@mail.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-6485-6428

Abstract:

This article describes the institute of guardianship as one of the mechanisms for maintaining the prerevolutionary elementary secular and ecclesiastical school in the Kurgan District of the Tobolsk Province. The author actualizes the historical experience of various social representatives participating in the education and upbringing of the younger generation; he also explains the need to develop and improve further the education management and its state-public nature. School guardianship, as a rule, has never been an independent research object; it has only been studied in connection with material maintenance of schools, or general questions on the history of public education. No attention has been paid to the motives of people who agreed to take on the status of a trustee, the problem of unsettled normative relationships with a teacher, the ways of influencing the official secular and ecclesiastical representatives on the trustees, and the reactions of the trustees themselves to the criticism of the subjects of school supervision.

The author notes the absence of fundamental differences in the functions performed by the trustees, regardless of the departmental affiliation of the primary schools (whether it was the Ministry of State Property, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education, or the Synod), as well as the lack of any responsibility of the trustees for their failure to perform, or the unfair execution of their powers. Based on the previously unpublished written archival sources, this study a) emphasizes the influence of the subjective factor on the implementation of guardianship responsibilities and b) confirms the significance of the participation of representatives of different social classes in the full functioning of the educational process of the rural school.

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